What the heck does that mean?

[anode]

Me again, I just got an email from a vocations director and this is what he wrote

I would be glad to speak with you. I offer NO HOPE, but certainly am glad to give you some time to discuss your situation.

What does that mean “I offer NO HOPE” ? I don’t understand? Could someone give me some help? I will call him but I don’t understand what that means? It is almost bizare. Scoob

I would meet with him, and not mention the “no hope” part, but be open, friendly, and aboveboard, laying out all your cards. If he does indeed offer* no hope* re his institute, ask him for suggestions. You haven’t mentioned what sort of institute he represents–a diocesan seminary, a religious institute, or what. You may recall the Thomas Merton was turned down by the Franciscans.

As an aside, Harold Varmus, the Nobel laureate, was turned down by Harvard Medical School–twice-- the admissions director saying he should go into the military to “grow up”–after Varmus had spent a graduate year in* literature.* Varmus later went to Columbia, which now can enter his name along with its other laureates.